Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Yea, Amanda Gorman, Welcome to the Daily Social Distancing Show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited.
Speaker 2: I'm the one who should be excited, because, I mean,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one kicked off with a bang. It's been
Speaker 2: a whirlwind for everybody, but I think for you, more
Speaker 2: than most people, it has been extra whirlwind d which
Speaker 2: is a word I trademarked you can use one day
Speaker 2: if you'd like to. In one of your poems. You
Speaker 2: went from not just being notable because you read a poem,
Speaker 2: the youngest ever inaugural poet, but also because of what
Speaker 2: the poem meant to people, because of the inspiration behind it,
Speaker 2: because of how people felt after they heard what you did.
Speaker 2: What has it been like for you, just just in
Speaker 2: this little period since the inauguration? What has your world
Speaker 2: been like?
Speaker 4: My world has been crazy. I mean, it's been turned
Speaker 4: upside down. I mean when I was writing the poem,
Speaker 4: I knew it was an historic moment. I knew it
Speaker 4: was an important moment, which is why I wanted to
Speaker 4: d just service. But I wasn't really paying attention to
Speaker 4: the ways in which my own personal life might change,
Speaker 4: so I went, I did my Nago poem, I walked
Speaker 4: off and just kind of expected everything to be the same.
Speaker 4: And then I remember trying to open my Instagram just
Speaker 4: to you know, look at other people's posts in all
Speaker 4: of my apps have just crashed because of all the
Speaker 4: followers that were just you know, flocking to my channel.
Speaker 4: So it's been amazing and I'm still kind of absorbing
Speaker 4: in all like a sponge.
Speaker 2: The poem The Hill We Climb, wasn't just momentous because
Speaker 2: of the day it was performed on. I think what
Speaker 2: made it special was that you incorporated, up until that
Speaker 2: day the things that so many people were feeling about America.
Speaker 2: If you don't mind walk me through why you felt
Speaker 2: it was important to write a poem for that moment
Speaker 2: and then even still be writing the poem on the
Speaker 2: actual day that you were delivering.
Speaker 3: It right exactly.
Speaker 4: Well for me, I mean I was writing it and
Speaker 4: trying to find a way to encapsulate what had gone
Speaker 4: on over the past you know, four years, and even
Speaker 4: looking more expansively than that, and then you know, we
Speaker 4: had the insurrection at the Capitol. So for me it
Speaker 4: was time to say, we've had this reminder of the
Speaker 4: ways in which democracies both fragile and also enduring, and
Speaker 4: how interest here it is to defend it. And I
Speaker 4: think a lot of times and cultures we think of
Speaker 4: the ways in which we can cleanse ourselves with water.
Speaker 4: I think of the ways that we can cleanse ourselves
Speaker 4: with words. Meaning that this home was an opportunity to
Speaker 4: kind of re sanctify, repurify, and reclaim not just the
Speaker 4: Capitol Building, but American democracy and what it stands for.
Speaker 3: Pretty high ask of myself.
Speaker 4: But you know, that's what idea when I showed up
Speaker 4: and I rolled up my sleeves, and that was the
Speaker 4: aim of the poem, to use words to try to
Speaker 4: go back to the quintessence of what America can be.
Speaker 2: I think you achieved that. I think you achieved that
Speaker 2: a thousand times over, and it showed in how people responded.
Speaker 2: I mean, consider it from this perspective, and you may not,
Speaker 2: but this is how I sold it. I went on
Speaker 2: a day when Joe Biden's inaugurated, Kamala Harris is stepping
Speaker 2: into the role as VP, Lady Gaga's performing, Jennifer Lopez
Speaker 2: is performing. You were the thing that people were looking
Speaker 2: you were. You were the trending thing. I mean it
Speaker 2: was like you competing with like Bernie Sanders's me was
Speaker 2: basically it that must be. Do you take a moment
Speaker 2: to go like, man, this is surreal.
Speaker 4: That is so surreal, especially because my friends they're so
Speaker 4: funny and you know, they come for blood. So they
Speaker 4: were texting me like, well, Joe Biden did a good
Speaker 4: job opening up.
Speaker 3: For Amanda Gorman, you know who won that inauguration.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh, it's not a competition, you know,
Speaker 4: it's not a fighter who were into the inauguration.
Speaker 3: They're like, but you did. And so I think for me, it.
Speaker 4: Was so daunting to be on a stage. You know,
Speaker 4: there's Michelle Obama to my ride, and Barack Obama and
Speaker 4: Hillary Clinton and what happened to the figures that have
Speaker 4: been you know, mythologized for me, and to find myself
Speaker 4: not only being in that space but owning it and
Speaker 4: claiming it was I think the highlight of my career.
Speaker 2: I believe that you are slated to perform at the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, I didn't you.
Speaker 2: Understand you understand the juxtaposition of this right now, right
Speaker 2: poetry at the Super Bowl, you understand the levels you've
Speaker 2: made it to where they were like, this person is
Speaker 2: so good that we have to bring her to do
Speaker 2: poetry at the super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Literally, that went over my head because I knew about
Speaker 4: the super Bowl and the Inauguration around the same time,
Speaker 4: and it was like there was not space in my
Speaker 4: head for both. Like I kept being like, I got
Speaker 4: to write that inauguration poem, and my team was like,
Speaker 4: there's this little thing called the super Bowl, which you
Speaker 4: should also keep in mind.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, it's very.
Speaker 4: Rare, and I want to say, you know, if not
Speaker 4: you know an extent possibility that a poet will be
Speaker 4: at something like the super Bowl, It's just nothing I
Speaker 4: have really heard about before. And so the moments I
Speaker 4: strive for in my lifetime, which is to bring poetry
Speaker 4: into the spaces that we least expected, so that we
Speaker 4: can fully kind of grapple with the ways in which
Speaker 4: it can heal and kind of resurrect us.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about poetry. I mean, it
Speaker 2: feels like poetry like some art has its highs and
Speaker 2: then it has moments where it disappears. Why do you
Speaker 2: think we should never forget poetry? What is it about
Speaker 2: poetry that you feel society needs to hold onto.
Speaker 4: Well, what I always say is poetry stands as a
Speaker 4: great reminder of the past that we stand on in
Speaker 4: the future that we stand for. I do not think
Speaker 4: it is any you know, coincidence that when America seeks
Speaker 4: to kind of consecrate its ideals, it does so through poetry.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's incidence that we see a poem
Speaker 4: at the base of the statue of liberty as opposed
Speaker 4: to like a scientific formula or even a prosaic paragraph.
Speaker 3: You know, why is it that.
Speaker 4: We call forth poetry in those moments or even point
Speaker 4: out to students, you know, when you're out of Black
Speaker 4: Lives Matter march and you see you know, banners that
Speaker 4: say they buried us, but they didn't know we received.
Speaker 4: That's poetry at the first racial justice movement. And so
Speaker 4: poetry because it's inherently rebellious and its nature, I think
Speaker 4: it really becomes the language and the rhetoric of the people.
Speaker 4: We get to kind of co opt it and play
Speaker 4: on it. And what's more, we get to use those
Speaker 4: words to realize our thoughts and transform those thoughts into actions.
Speaker 2: You have a journey ahead of you that I think
Speaker 2: nobody can predict, which is exciting. And you've had a
Speaker 2: journey that has been unpredictable. You know, you've talked about it,
Speaker 2: you know, growing up in a family with a single
Speaker 2: mom who was raising yourself and your twin sister and
Speaker 2: your brother as well, and how you just forought to achieve.
Speaker 2: My question to you then, is what are you aspiring
Speaker 2: to seeing that you've basically done it all, I mean
Speaker 2: in the past few weeks, right.
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm really taking that time to kind of
Speaker 4: sit back and think and be like, well, wow, that
Speaker 4: was it. Kind of what's the next? And for me,
Speaker 4: I don't think it's about kind of beating my last
Speaker 4: thing or even competing against myself.
Speaker 3: I hear that a lot of thing. That's fine for
Speaker 3: other people.
Speaker 4: I'm not necessarily fighting against myself or competing or contestating
Speaker 4: against anything I've done. But I want to keep on
Speaker 4: the trajectory that I've started for myself, I never want
Speaker 4: to kind of dally our diverge from that. And for me,
Speaker 4: that just means using my poetry to touch and heal
Speaker 4: and impact as many people as possible and that can
Speaker 4: be at the inauguration, the super Bowl, it can be
Speaker 4: in a living room. It's often in classrooms with other students.
Speaker 4: And so that's what's next for me. On the more
Speaker 4: like resume tick thing that I always have to mention
Speaker 4: when I'm on talk shows, I'm like, I have three
Speaker 4: books coming out, So there's also that the media what
Speaker 4: I need to write.
Speaker 3: But you know, I'm just chugging forward.
Speaker 2: Well, I know everyone's going to be reading the books.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Amana Goman, and congratulations from all
Speaker 2: your success.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: My guest tonight was a New York Times bestselling author
Speaker 5: and illustrators. His new book is called School Trip. Please
Speaker 5: welcome Jerry Kraft Brother Crap Brother Crab, Yes, sir, first off,
Speaker 5: shots out to the tie. I see what you're doing
Speaker 5: with the tie. I got got the little catch some
Speaker 5: of them black peanut kid.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: What did you read growing up? I'm always interested about
Speaker 1: that with authors, like what got you into the habit
Speaker 1: of reading? Like, because I was assigned a lot of
Speaker 1: books in school that I feel like I shouldn't have
Speaker 1: been reading. It was like bey Wolf, call it a
Speaker 1: wack Thomson. Just white people.
Speaker 6: Running and you didn't see yourself in that, You know.
Speaker 5: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I did not see myself in those books.
Speaker 6: Now, I went from Doctor Seus's to Marvel comics to nothing.
Speaker 6: I hated to read. Reading was a punishment for me.
Speaker 6: And it's the same thing. I didn't see myself. What
Speaker 6: am I going to read Tom Sawyer huck Finn like?
Speaker 6: That wasn't me? I mean?
Speaker 1: But Tom Soyer had the N word in it.
Speaker 6: So representation, right, So we got some representation. It wasn't
Speaker 6: great representation, but we got representation.
Speaker 1: So then if Marvel comics and comic books activated your
Speaker 1: curiosity for literacy, what is it about graphic novels that
Speaker 1: we can do to help that with today's children.
Speaker 6: The first thing I think we have to explain to
Speaker 6: some people is the term graphic novel does not mean
Speaker 6: a novel with graphic content, and that you think that's
Speaker 6: not real, But there are people that think that. So
Speaker 6: they're like, I don't want my kid to read the
Speaker 6: graphic novel. It's a novel with graphic content, and they're like, no,
Speaker 6: that's not what it is. So we might have to
Speaker 6: change it into just a big, old com like book
Speaker 6: that might make it a little better.
Speaker 1: I think with some of the education rates in this country,
Speaker 1: that's probably a good idea. Brother. Now, this book that
Speaker 1: you have, school trips, a wonderful, wonderful book is about
Speaker 1: you know, black child out there doing this thing. It's
Speaker 1: been banned in a bunch of places. First off, congratulations
Speaker 1: on being banned. Thank you, congratulations.
Speaker 5: I know that must feel awful.
Speaker 1: I know that it is a terrible feeling to write
Speaker 1: a book and then somebody go, oh, your book is
Speaker 1: too good, we can't let nobody read it. What was
Speaker 1: your thoughts and feelings when you first found out about that.
Speaker 6: I was disappointed. I was sad for the kids because
Speaker 6: so this book, this is my first book, new Kid.
Speaker 6: It's the first graphic novel, only graphic novel ever to
Speaker 6: win a Newbery Metal. It was the second book to
Speaker 6: win the Newbery and the credit Scott King, right, and
Speaker 6: the only book ever to win those two in the
Speaker 6: Kirkus Prize.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So not the only black book, the only book, not
Speaker 6: the only black book.
Speaker 1: So then how do we get to that place? How
Speaker 1: do we go from a book the same character in
Speaker 1: both books.
Speaker 3: This is the third.
Speaker 1: Book with this character. So the first book Award Award
Speaker 1: Award this book, people go crt right, how is that
Speaker 1: classification even fair? With the literature that you've been creating?
Speaker 6: Fair? You are funny?
Speaker 7: Fair?
Speaker 6: I mean, like that's that's the point of it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: It's like from a kid who hated to read and
Speaker 6: was told that comics would write his brain to grow up.
Speaker 6: You know, born in Harlem, grew up in Wathston Heights,
Speaker 6: and to have this book, which should be an after
Speaker 6: school special. My life should be the after school special
Speaker 6: a reluctant reader who grows up to I mean, there's
Speaker 6: a movie in the works with this book.
Speaker 5: Okay, but do you do.
Speaker 1: You have a producing partner. I know how to read.
Speaker 1: I like reading, get money. We'll talk about that etis.
Speaker 6: But it's like thirteen different languages, so they can read
Speaker 6: it in Albanian, Romanian, Greek, they just can't read it
Speaker 6: in Texas.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 1: Now, the book is about. This book's school trip is
Speaker 1: about you know, some kids who decide to travel over
Speaker 1: to France and they take a school trip. Now, as
Speaker 1: a product of Birmingham Public Schools, I cannot relate to
Speaker 1: traveling out of the country at any point, Like there
Speaker 1: was no international field trips, like in Alabama, you go
Speaker 1: to three places, you go to civil rights, they take
Speaker 1: you down to Montgomery to see where they don't pass
Speaker 1: laws that help civil rights right, and then they let
Speaker 1: you visit a cave. So, okay, it's a nice cave.
Speaker 1: But where have you traveled like? Because to be able
Speaker 1: to write about children traveling beyond the horizon, what were
Speaker 1: your travels like in your journeys as a child.
Speaker 6: As a child, it was all local stuff that my
Speaker 6: dad and I used to go when I graduated from college,
Speaker 6: which I know you're trying to ban, but for those
Speaker 6: of you you know it, you know it was good.
Speaker 1: It was going to get one free coupon.
Speaker 5: It was good for me.
Speaker 6: So when I graduated from college, my dad took me
Speaker 6: to Bahamas and it was seventy years old, his first
Speaker 6: time on the plane, right, because we didn't think that
Speaker 6: we could travel right. And then we went every year
Speaker 6: to a different place for twenty years. When my son's
Speaker 6: graduated from college, I took them to Paris, because again,
Speaker 6: you don't think that you can do those things right.
Speaker 6: And so I make the books that I wish that
Speaker 6: I had when I was a kid. That makes kids
Speaker 6: readers that gives them hope because you don't even know
Speaker 6: the things that you can hope for, right and that.
Speaker 6: So so I read a review online. They told me
Speaker 6: not to read reviews, but I did anyway, and this
Speaker 6: woman literally wrote, I'm not sure if my largely poor,
Speaker 6: largely African American students will be able to relate to
Speaker 6: this book. So I'm like, but a kid. You're saying,
Speaker 6: a kid can relate to a kid who goes to
Speaker 6: wizard school, flies on a broom and waves a wand
Speaker 6: but you can't pitch these black kids going to Paris,
Speaker 6: So you're not going to let them see the book.
Speaker 6: That's worse than being banned.
Speaker 1: How do we get people also to understand because to me,
Speaker 1: the issue with CRT as well, I think it's been
Speaker 1: twisted into this idea that these are black authors writing
Speaker 1: about black stuff, specifically for black people. How do we
Speaker 1: get people to also understand that these books are for
Speaker 1: everyone to read. It's not about some sort of colored
Speaker 1: only section on a bookshelf. These books are about the
Speaker 1: human experience. So how will we be able to get
Speaker 1: more people to understand that.
Speaker 6: There's a kid I just saw this on TikTok. So
Speaker 6: it's a ninth grader. Right, a nine year old third
Speaker 6: grader in Escambia County, Florida, goes up in front of
Speaker 6: a school board. Right, he should be home playing Xbox
Speaker 6: right in from a school board. Talking about this book,
Speaker 6: he says, this book was a good reminder that we
Speaker 6: are all equal and we should treat people with kindness
Speaker 6: and respect because you never know what someone is going through.
Speaker 1: Thank you for everything that you do for a craft.
Speaker 1: Will appreciate your brother.
Speaker 8: My next two guests, they have collaborated on a new
Speaker 8: book for young readers called how to Be a Young
Speaker 8: Anti Racist? Won't you please welcome Doctor Ibraham X Kenny
Speaker 8: and Nick Stone than So how to be a Young
Speaker 8: Anti Racist? That means you're already banned in Florida. So
Speaker 8: it's funny when we talk about race because we live
Speaker 8: in a country that the Congress intended voted for Juneteenthville,
Speaker 8: but this where the same nations don't want to talk
Speaker 8: about slavery. They'll have Martin Luther King and Robert E.
Speaker 8: Lee Day on the same days. So I think when
Speaker 8: it comes to racism, I think that a lot of
Speaker 8: people believe that if they're not actively saying the N
Speaker 8: word or doing or saying bigger than things.
Speaker 1: That means they're not racist.
Speaker 8: So how can we start a conversation about being anti
Speaker 8: race when you're not quite sure how to quantify racism?
Speaker 8: We are, but I don't think a lot.
Speaker 1: Of people are.
Speaker 7: And I think that's that's the very point, because if
Speaker 7: you're not doing anything to challenge all of the injustice
Speaker 7: and all of the inequity in our society, then what
Speaker 7: happens It persists, Sure, so therefore you're reinforcing it. So
Speaker 7: therefore you're being racist. And so we're encouraging people to
Speaker 7: actively try to dismantle us the structure, including young people.
Speaker 8: But what is their incentive? Like, what would they be nick?
Speaker 8: What is there if this is the working for you
Speaker 8: or not? It doesn't cause you anywhere because you can
Speaker 8: sleep at night, Why would you want to change the system?
Speaker 8: It doesn't. It seems to be going just as you intended.
Speaker 9: But is it actually working for you?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 9: Right, it seems like yes. I think for me, it's
Speaker 9: all about children, right, Like, even though this is a
Speaker 9: system that might seem like it's working for you, the
Speaker 9: world is actively changing if your children are not prepared
Speaker 9: to live in a world and move through a world
Speaker 9: that have people that are different from them in positions
Speaker 9: of power. They're gonna be in trouble, yeah.
Speaker 8: But then they try to remake the world. You see that. Literally,
Speaker 8: we're a nation that is run by the Flintstones and
Speaker 8: the Jetsuits, and the stones are winning.
Speaker 5: You have to understand that.
Speaker 8: I don't believe a lot of people, For instance, I
Speaker 8: don't believe white people a lot of white people are
Speaker 8: actively racist. But I do believe that the notions of
Speaker 8: white supremacists. They don't agree with their methods, but they
Speaker 8: agree with their goal, which is the key people in charge.
Speaker 8: And so if that is the premise, then what incentive,
Speaker 8: seriously would there be to make these changes that only
Speaker 8: destabilize what you know works for you.
Speaker 7: I think one of the things we've been showing in
Speaker 7: studying racism is that it's actually harming white people too.
Speaker 7: It's not harming them at the level it's harming people
Speaker 7: of color, but there are actually white people who are
Speaker 7: dying of police violence. They're not dying at the level
Speaker 7: of black and brown people, but more white people are
Speaker 7: dying of police violence in this country than other countries.
Speaker 7: More white people are incarcerated in this country than other countries,
Speaker 7: more white people are struggling to vote in this country
Speaker 7: compared to other countries. There were five million about poor
Speaker 7: whites in eighteen sixty whose poverty was directly connected to
Speaker 7: the enslavement of black people.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of white people don't get this.
Speaker 8: When you pour you a nigga, you are, you are.
Speaker 5: Hure, you are, you.
Speaker 1: Are like that.
Speaker 8: I don't think people understand. And generally what hurts me
Speaker 8: hurts you. What is good for me is good for you,
Speaker 8: And I think that. But there is that thing and
Speaker 8: where you know people will give their last nime to
Speaker 8: keep things a certain way as long as it hurts you,
Speaker 8: Like look at what happened with the Obamacare Act. A
Speaker 8: lot of those people in those poor states are being
Speaker 8: hurt by that, but they.
Speaker 1: Don't care as long as you are.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: But the sense of optimism is in what you said earlier, children,
Speaker 8: because in children you have not mine's there the whole
Speaker 8: different thing. But but in our children we can see
Speaker 8: the potential of things that we hope to never that
Speaker 8: we hope we can realize probably never will. So that
Speaker 8: is an angle I think that it's probably subsidient.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think when it comes to children, I have
Speaker 9: two of my own, and it's important for me that
Speaker 9: they enter a world that they feel empowered to change,
Speaker 9: which is why we wrote this book. Right, So doctor
Speaker 9: Kenny wrote his memoir years ago and I latched onto
Speaker 9: it slid into his deals. I could do a young
Speaker 9: reader's version because it's important that young people have the tools.
Speaker 9: I get so many kids who are asking, well, what
Speaker 9: do I do? How do I help? What do I change?
Speaker 9: How can I get into this fight and do something
Speaker 9: about it? And so creating a text like how to
Speaker 9: Be a Young Anti Racist, we're giving them information where
Speaker 9: they're learning these definitions, they're learning what racism actuality.
Speaker 8: It give me an example of what racism actually is.
Speaker 9: So racism is a system of ideas. So you have
Speaker 9: racist ideas and they are basically they're made to keep
Speaker 9: inequities going. Right, So the whole purpose of a book
Speaker 9: like How to Be a Young Anti Racist is to
Speaker 9: give young people terms that we can all agree on.
Speaker 9: That way we know what we're standing against, what like racism?
Speaker 9: Having a term at definition for racism helps them see, Okay,
Speaker 9: this is what we're trying to fight because one.
Speaker 7: Of the things that happens is people who have historically
Speaker 7: been racist refuse to define that term, of course, because
Speaker 7: it luges them to exonerate themselves consistently and constantly, and
Speaker 7: even young people therefore don't know what it is, so
Speaker 7: they can't even assess themselves and guide themselves.
Speaker 8: How would they know. We have a lot of people
Speaker 8: who are raised by people who moved out of places
Speaker 8: that black people were moving into, right that that was
Speaker 8: a predicate that we're gonna move out of places that
Speaker 8: black people are moving into. But those are the people
Speaker 8: who have the conversation with the people who are now
Speaker 8: having the conversation with the people. So if they don't
Speaker 8: think the thing that they did was racist, that's that's
Speaker 8: a level of obliviousness that you can't you can't quite
Speaker 8: quantify it is.
Speaker 7: And indeed, are you know the heartbeat of being racist
Speaker 7: is denial. Yeah, This denial is consistent and constant and insidious.
Speaker 8: You know, it does give me hope when I see
Speaker 8: people like your book beat my book in the New
Speaker 8: York Times bestsellersness.
Speaker 6: So I'm just going.
Speaker 8: And it's interesting because that came along at the time
Speaker 8: and you had written it a good while back, but
Speaker 8: it resurfaced when the George Floyd protest was coming on.
Speaker 8: They really seemed a moment and this I seen these
Speaker 8: inflection points when we can generally well, people are really
Speaker 8: open to listen. But the problem is it's so fast.
Speaker 8: You can only get attentions so fast, and then we're
Speaker 8: on to the next thing. And I think that's that's
Speaker 8: not even a purposeful I think it's just the function
Speaker 8: of how we live. But if you could say a
Speaker 8: substantive thing that people could do every day, like in practice,
Speaker 8: every day where they could be an example, because every
Speaker 8: time somebody says something that somebody deemed hurtful, they automatically stop.
Speaker 8: I don't want to hear it anymore. I'm tired of
Speaker 8: this already. We were slave for four underd years, but
Speaker 8: Jim Kroben around fifty years, like trying to not be
Speaker 8: a slave has not we haven't had to put as
Speaker 8: much elbworg grous as that. But books like this and
Speaker 8: having conversations where people don't turn off are really the
Speaker 8: crux of what we need to be doing. And for
Speaker 8: young people, it's so much easier to like it is
Speaker 8: to learn a language. It's got to be easier to
Speaker 8: learn a love language, right, it's got to be easier
Speaker 8: to learn. And what do I Because I get angry,
Speaker 8: Like when black people do, it's called anger. When white
Speaker 8: people are doing it's called rightnation. But it's really hard
Speaker 8: to come from a place of anger and try to
Speaker 8: be try to teat somebody something. Yeah, So I think
Speaker 8: at least on media, owners has to be lowering the
Speaker 8: temperature and listening.
Speaker 9: Right, Yeah, And I mean, look, the book is really
Speaker 9: all about first turning inward. I think part of the
Speaker 9: issue is that we don't do a good job of
Speaker 9: humanizing ourselves. We don't give ourselves the space to be angry.
Speaker 9: We don't give ourselves the space to be sad. We
Speaker 9: don't give ourselves the space to have unpopular opinions, right,
Speaker 9: like we do, we're all usual. But even that you
Speaker 9: know the fact that you're like, I'm angry, and I
Speaker 9: don't you know, I don't know how I feel about
Speaker 9: being angry, Like it makes sense that we're angry. So
Speaker 9: taking the time to look inward and figure out the
Speaker 9: beauty of how to be an anti racist. The adult
Speaker 9: book was that you get Ebram's whole story where he
Speaker 9: is very open about the racist ideas that he was holding.
Speaker 9: So taking that and distilling it down for young people
Speaker 9: so that they can see, oh dang, this thing that
Speaker 9: I'm thinking thinking is probably a little racist. We had
Speaker 9: an event last night in Atlanta and our team moderator.
Speaker 9: That was the first question she asked us. She was like,
Speaker 9: I read the book and it pointed out to me
Speaker 9: all of the ways that I have racist ideas, and
Speaker 9: it made me feel a way about myself. What am
Speaker 9: I supposed to do? So then having that self compassion
Speaker 9: where you can see, Okay, yes I am a product
Speaker 9: of a racist environment. I probably have some racist ideas.
Speaker 9: Taking the time to give yourself some grace, you'll give
Speaker 9: other people some grace too, And that's how we kind
Speaker 9: of like get to a point where we're working.
Speaker 8: Together, sharing each other.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: The thing that's so frustrating for me is our stories
Speaker 8: tend to start in the middle. Like we were something
Speaker 8: before this, and our stories seemed to start in the middle.
Speaker 8: So and it's just like, even what's going on in Florida,
Speaker 8: you don't even want us to learn our history, Like
Speaker 8: there was a time when the slave people couldn't learn
Speaker 8: and now it's illegal for us to learn about enslaved people.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so it just.
Speaker 8: On. And you would have heard that had you not
Speaker 8: beat me on the New York Times best seller list.
Speaker 8: And I think that we have a lot to learn
Speaker 8: about how things work and to really half constructive conversations
Speaker 8: because it's so much more fulfilling to me to shout
Speaker 8: at somebody, but it doesn't really accomplish anything. And I'm
Speaker 8: really very proud that you write books like this. And
Speaker 8: I think the younger you start, I mean, you gotta
Speaker 8: not be an anti racist baby. You have the babies too.
Speaker 8: You have the baby. What is a baby gonna dude?
Speaker 9: Look, you learn it somewhere. You either learn to love
Speaker 9: people or you learn.
Speaker 3: To hate them, right, Like, I don't want chocolate milk.
Speaker 3: I want.
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